Dubai tops Heathrow as the busiest international airport

For the first time, Dubai has outranked Heathrow as the world’s busiest airport for international travel. Dubai received 67.3 million international passengers between February 2013 and February 2014 compared to Heathrow’s 66.9 million, according to Airports Council International(ACI).

Around 10 years ago, Dubai was ranked #45. Dubai’s international connections grew largely due to its location. The Dubai airport is within an 8 hour flight of two-thirds of the world’s population. Dubai is not the busiest airport by passengers total though. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport saw 95 million passengers during the same 12 month period.

Based on international passengers, Heathrow’s airport is now in second place followed by Hong Kong (60 million passengers). The rest of the top 10 includes Paris, Singapore, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Incheon, Bangkok and Istanbul.

Dubai is planning to build a second airport, which is even larger than its current one sometime in the near future, according to Mashable.